ACTA was negotiated by Australia, Canada, the EU and its 27 Member States, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States. All countries have signed ACTA except for Switzerland. Although the European Union's Parliament voted against ACTA on July 4, 2012, INTA encourages the remaining countries to sign ACTA and implement the trade agreement.

ACTA would be one of the first international agreements designed specifically to combat counterfeiting in a harmonized and coordinated way, which is absolutely necessary to fight the highly sophisticated counterfeiting networks spanning multiple countries. INTA supports ACTA provisions that call for:

higher standards and stronger cooperation on combating counterfeiting

stronger border enforcement especially with relation to goods in transit

more effective criminal penalties

stronger international cooperation between enforcement bodies of the signatory countries

increased cooperation between government and industry

In coordination with the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting (BASCAP), INTA has led a group of national and international industry associations as the Business Response Group (BRG) to submit recommendations and comments to the negotiators on provisions for ACTA.

September 2012

On September 6, the Japanese legislature voted to ratified ACTA, making Japan the first signatory of agreement to successfully approve the agreement. See INTA press release.

October 2011
Australia, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States sign ACTA.

June 2011
The European Commission formally adopts ACTA and sends it to the Council and European Parliament for final approval. INTA and other organizations representing companies operating throughout Europe applaud the Commission's action.